Following President Barack Obama’s Wednesday announcement of Susan Rice as his new top national security adviser, Samantha Power ’92 has been named to take on Rice’s former role as United States ambassador to the United Nations.

Power, who began her career as a journalist covering the Yugoslav Wars and later served as the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kenney School of Government, has worked on the National Security Council and also as a special assistant to the President. She has focused on issues such the campaign against human trafficking, the promotion of religious freedom and the promotion of women’s and LGBT rights. Power has been a prominent political figure in past years for advocating military force in Libya and criticizing some ineffective UN human rights policies.

While at Yale, Power majored in history and worked as a sports reporter. She also served as editor of the Yale Daily News Magazine.

Power is the author or co-editor of four books, including “A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide,” which won the 2003 nonfiction Pulitzer Prize. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

AMY WANG